“Jumanji”

At this very early point in her young career, Azealia Banks is becoming known more for a flurry of self-imposed drama (starting random beefs, announcing and then shelving releases) than the songs she's released. But the most interesting thing about "Jumanji", from her new mixtape, is that it's more about what's going on around her. As these new tracks trickle out, we're getting a chance to hear how her distinctive voice works in different settings. Here, her rapping really functions as the bedrock, the steady pulse for the production (by Hudson Mohawke and Nick Hook) to swirl around. It feels like something new could happen at any moment. It brings to mind the way Rustie brilliantly mixed rap new and old into his dense electronic productions on his recent BBC 1 mix--it's an absolutely brilliant beat, bursting with possibility and exploding with color. And then, you know, in the middle of it, there's Azealia Banks. She can rap.